2 weeks Ago By Dominic Anthony Walsh
Cash-strapped and short-staffed, the City of Houston's BARC animal shelter is facing criticism from some community members for speeding up its euthanasia process — as well as calls from some city council members for a new organizational structure. BARC announced March 1 that it's shortening the "rescue notice period" from 48 hours to 24 hours , meaning animal welfare nonprofits will have less time to save at-risk animals facing euthanasia. BARC is also no longer posting the euthanasia list publicly.
"It wasn’t taken lightly," BARC director Jarrad Mears told a city council committee on Monday. "Last year I made it our mission that we were going to take in more animals, do more enforcement. We brought in 2,000 more animals than we have in six years.
We don’t do it for fun. We do it because we’re protecting the public health and safety of our residents." According to BARC's presentation to a joint meeting of the Budget and Fiscal Affairs and Service Delivery committees, Houston's animal shelter "does not have adequate funding or space to achieve desired outcomes.
" BARC's analysis in 2023 found the shelter receives far less funding per capita than other cities in Texas. With a less than $16 million budget in a city of more than 2.3 million people, Houston's animal shelter has a per-capita funding of $6.
75 compared to more than $14 in San Antonio and Dallas, nearly $18 in Austin, $11.80 in Fort Worth and $13.83 in El Paso.
"It’s just math," council member Sallie Alcorn said. "If we’re not putting the resources there, we’re going to continue to have problems at BARC." Mears said BARC is responding to 99% of high-priority calls, like dog bites or imminent animal-related danger, but there are "insufficient resources" to respond to lower-priority calls, like reports of stray dogs.
Mears said BARC's primary mission is public safety, while releasing animals alive is secondary. He pointed to recent dog attacks in the Houston area, including a woman he said was killed by a pack of dogs and, in the Fifth Ward, five people who were mauled . Reported dog bites are up 10% since 2019, from less than 2,200 to nearly 2,400.
Under Mears, who became director in 2023, BARC has increased its intake at the expense of live release. "Our issue is holding space for adoptable animals increases live release, but it limits our ability to remove dangerous animals from the community," Mears said. "Euthanizing dangerous, sick or behaviorally challenged animals improves public safety and alleviates shelter capacity, but decreases live release.
So we have a human casualties versus animal casualties situation going on." BARC took in more than 20,000 animals in 2024 with a daily kennel capacity of 400. Nearly 20% of those animals were euthanized — up from 4% in 2020 but significantly down from 57% in 2012.
Cherry George, who said she runs a nonprofit animal rescue, criticized the faster euthanasia process. "(Animal rescue) was already a daunting task before the March 1 changes," she said. "This chokes down the volunteer resources that are helping to get dogs out of there, and it also significantly reduces the time that our volunteers have for screening.
" Before considering animals for the euthanasia list, Mears said the city has a 48-hour hold for animals without microchips or name tags and a six-day hold for animals with microchips or nametags. He said animals moved to the euthanasia list have often been at the facility for up to 15 days. With $47 million from a bond approved by voters in 2022 , the shelter plans to construct a new shelter with an additional 150 kennels.
Mears said those kennels will require extra staffing, which the bond does not fund. "We need to increase the shelter capacity overall," he said. "We need more kennels.
BARC is at a constant state of being full. We need to increase capacity for care. We need more kennel staff.
" In the meantime, BARC is exploring new funding models. Some city council members want it to become a Local Government Corporation (LGC), similar to the city's convention and tourism marketing arm, Houston First, or the Houston Zoo. Mears pushed back, though, arguing such an entity would compete with existing animal welfare nonprofits while being unable to generate revenue in the same way as other LGCs.
"All it does is move people around and results in fewer resources for both entities," Mears said. "It does not solve the resource issue for BARC." During public comment, resident Wendy Schneider argued the LGC model would enable BARC to raise more funds.
"Nobody wants to donate to a sinking ship," she said. "We could have increased flexibility and efficiency in hiring, resource allocation, strategic decision-making, private sector-style management. Freedom from bureaucratic city processes could lead to better outcomes and adoptions rescues.
" City council member Mario Castillo agreed and said he was "struggling" to understand why BARC shouldn't form an LGC. Mears said he would prefer to set up a public-nonprofit partnership because it could eventually become an LGC upon gaining a sustainable revenue stream. "I think starting off small with a private partnership will go much smoother, much better, and then we can graduate into that once we see what the fundraising will actually look like and what they’re able to accomplish," Mears said.
According to Mears, the new shelter with 150 kennels could take up to two years to build..
